Hi all,
Please beat me up on my budget below:
get one of those Nt$499 or less unlimited data per month phone contract and let your phone be a WiFi hotspot for you and your family. your budget way too high for Internet and cell, which you have even separately.
Thanks! I wasn’t sure what was needed. I based alot of the number based on numbeo on Taipei and Kaohsiung (No contributor for Yilan 
) . Good to know that those numbers are inflated. Better to be high than too low.
I admire your efficient to-the-pointedness.
Two scooters suggests there’s two of you. In that case the budgets for groceries and restaurants looks low, if you consider 3 meals per day. Also your travel budget would restrict you to domestic travel on the cheap.
You need 16 hours a week for health insurance thru work visa…I think.
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Groceries + Restaurant = 9000/month … for a family of 4 that seems very low. I would suggest doubling that figure to be safe.
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Yes. After looking at it again. We should probably budget 600-700USD for Restaurant/Groceries.
@Brianjones: Thanks for that info. 16 hours a week sounds great! Extra income.
You can avoid the health insurance payments if you leave the country on regular intervals, I think it’s that you need to be here contentiously for 3+ months until you need to pay
I think we want to be in the NHI. If not, I imagine private policy will be quite expensive. NHI is a good thing, right?
@IbisWtf Any comment on my budget (except for Restaurant/Groceries)? How is cost of living compared to kaohsiung?
It’s super cheap to see the doctor without it as well. You would need to go to the doctor multiple times per month to come ahead.
Only scenario where it makes sense is if you need some major surgery, but in those cases you can just go back home to do it
It’s a bit hard to tell… We’re only two so far (working to get a 3rd one!), we usually only have meals outside in the weekend or maybe once a week if we feel tired/finish work late, and we have the vegetable/meat distribution center 5 minutes from home, which saves a lot of money.
Daily cost of living depends a lot on where you live: yilan city, luodong, jiaoxi and larrger towns in general are more expensive.
When we moved in Yilan (Luodong) for the first few months my wife had a new job but i didn’t, and with just her salary around 35k we were still making a bit of savings. Cost of living here is much more reasonable than Taipei.
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I just wish Yilan had a Costco and I would move there ASAP 
$35K and still saving?! Wow… how long ago was that? Having a newborn adds about $100 USD/month in the US. Not taking consideration daycare/nanny. This number drops significantly once they are potty trained and eat solid food. Then it will go higher once they start kindergarten. Having toddler saves money as you tend to not eat out… well, depends on your lifestyle.
We are considering LuoDong as well. $6,000 NT for 2 scooters and public transport per month is sufficient? Include periodical maintenance and insurance?
Thanks for the input!
Kids receive many benefits from the NHI.
That was 5 years ago, but with 35k today we’d still be doing ok. Mortgage and fixed expenses for us are around 10k, add around 12k for food, groceries etc (and that’s a lot for the two of us, I’m really including everything) and there’s a fair bit of leftover for some daily trips, restaurants etc etc.
Shopping in traditional markets for seasonal veggies and fruit helps a lot, can save plenty of money doing so.
I go everywhere by bicycle, so I don’t know the cost of transportation around the region.
If you go to night markets or restaurants with Taiwanese food you can easily get full with 80/100NT, 120/150NT for beef noodles or larger meals, 200/250NT for hot pot or shabushabu.
Fun fact: autocorrect fixed “night markets” into “nightmares”, it was probably thinking of the Luodong night market.